How I do it all
Ever since we met in college, hedge-fund titan Bill Ackman and I have been close friends.
This is the oldest picture I have of us, from 1986 (don't ask me why we're holding pens in our hands):
Bill has been wildly successful professionally, but I don't feel any envy toward him – or anyone else.
He has a great life. I won't violate his privacy by sharing any details, but let's just say it doesn't suck to be a billionaire.
But my life is better... and even Bill admits it.
A while back, when I was regaling him with some tall tale of one of my adventures, he chuckled and said, "You have the highest quality of life of anyone I know."
He's right.
I won't bore you with the details, but regular readers of my e-mails know how much time I spend climbing, competing in various races, playing tennis, and skiing.
At the same time, my business, Empire Financial Research, is going gangbusters. We now have over 96,000 paid subscribers, up from only 5,000 at the beginning of 2020.
Nor is my marriage suffering. In fact, after more than 30 years together (and nearly 28 years of marriage), I think Susan and I are in the best place we've ever been (and most days I think she would agree!).
I share this with you not to gloat (or tempt fate!), but because I hope that sharing the keys to how I've achieved all of this might help some of my readers achieve similar success and happiness.
In rough order of importance, here are the most important factors:
Marriage
Warren Buffett once said that the two most important decisions you make in your life are who you marry and what career you choose.
I agree.
Regarding marriage, based on my personal experience, a lifetime of observation, and quite a bit of research (which, for example, reveals that one-third of marriages are severely strained), I can't think of anything more important to long-term happiness than a strong marriage. It's the most important relationship in your life.
I got this pillar of my life right thanks to a combination of things:
- I was a good catch myself (great people generally only marry other great people)
- I looked for a spouse in the right places (I met Susan when Bill and I crashed the Harvard Law School orientation booze cruise for first-year students in September 1990)
- I'm careful about behaviors that could blow up my marriage (e.g., I don't flirt, have never used drugs, and only get drunk once or twice a decade)
- Susan and I don't take our marriage for granted – we both make an effort to keep it strong
And, of course, Susan is endlessly patient and forgiving!
I've written an entire chapter about marrying the right person and then maintaining a happy, healthy marriage in my forthcoming book, The Art of Playing Defense, from which I'll be sharing excerpts in future e-mails.
My business
I did two big things right here...
1) When I launched Empire two years ago, I did so in partnership with Stansberry Research rather than going it alone, which is what I'd done with all of my previous businesses in my career.
It's been a beautiful endeavor that's resulted in both a much bigger, better business – and, equally importantly, far less stress in my life.
I discussed this decision at length in my January 7 e-mail, in which I concluded:
If you're lucky, maybe you'll find a middle ground – perhaps a joint venture in which someone else puts up the money and provides logistical support while you focus on what you like to do, and you can share the ownership and profits.
This is the agreement Porter and I struck to create Empire Financial Research. Other folks take care of everything behind the scenes, allowing me to focus nearly 100% of my time on two things that I love and am good at: coming up with great investment ideas and writing them up for my readers and subscribers. It's perfect!
2) I persuaded two of my longtime friends from the hedge-fund world, Enrique Abeyta and Berna Barshay, to join me. They are absolutely knocking the cover off the ball – which is making my life easy (shh, don't tell them)!
Multitasking
I'm a very good multitasker. Allow me to give you a simple example from yesterday, when I drove nearly two hours each way to spend the day skiing at Sugarbush ski area. It was very cold – below 20 degrees – but the powder was insane, as you can see from these pictures:
In total, I was away for eight hours – a period in which I got no work done, right? WRONG!
For the entire time – even when I was skiing (I put one of my Jabra Elite Active 75t Wireless Earbuds in my ear, under my helmet) – I was listening to Enrique's new podcast (which is amazing – I'll write about it tomorrow), YouTube videos, an Audible book, and various articles and e-mails I'd archived (using a fantastic app called Pocket, which I wrote about here).
I don't waste time listening to music – instead, whenever I can't be reading (when I'm driving, running, skiing, etc.), I'm listening to things that are educational and enriching.
Sleep
It might surprise you to learn that I'm not one of those people who are hyperproductive because they can function on four or five hours of sleep.
In fact, it's the opposite... After seeing Matthew Walker's TED talk, "Sleep Is Your Superpower," I've become a huge advocate for getting lots of sleep (and now average eight hours per night), for reasons I discussed in my August 14 e-mail.
I hope you find some of these ideas thought-provoking!
Best regards,
Whitney